60-Foot Billboard Proposal Returns Before River Edge Land Use Board

RIVER EDGE, NJ — A proposal to install a 60-foot-tall billboard along Route 4 is returning to the River Edge Municipal Land Use Board.

Pacific Outdoor Advertising LLC is seeking preliminary and final minor site plan approval for a two-sided, V-shaped billboard at 14 Route 4 West, according to the board's Wednesday meeting agenda.

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The proposal is listed as old business. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in the second-floor Council Chambers at Borough Hall, 705 Kinderkamack Road. Residents may also participate through Zoom using the link provided in the agenda.

Plans describe a static billboard. Each side would measure 10.5 feet by 36 feet and be illuminated by three 5,000K LED fixtures, according to an updated review prepared for the borough.

The property sits in the C-1 Commercial Neighborhood Business Zone, where billboards are prohibited. The applicant is seeking use and height variances, along with relief involving setbacks, landscaping buffers and sign regulations.

Revised plans place the billboard 2.28 feet from the front property line, where 30 feet is required, and 9.37 feet from the rear property line, where 20 feet is required. No new landscaping is proposed.

The borough planner's review says the applicant should address how the billboard and its lighting could affect nearby homes. Revised plans include illumination measurements at four points along the property line, but the planner said those levels appear to exceed the borough's maximum and would require a design exception.

Application materials anticipate illuminating the billboard from dusk until dawn. Borough regulations generally require spotlights and floodlights used to illuminate signs to be turned off by 11 p.m., meaning the applicant would also need relief from that rule.

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